The Vanderpump Rules star is obviously on his girlfriend Ariana Madix’s team after her argument with co-star Stassi Schroeder during last week’s episode — but now he’s setting the record straight about the sneaky Instagram photo Stassi posted shortly after the episode aired.

“All of the girls were in Vegas for Brittany [Cartwright]’s birthday this past week,” Tom exclusively told In Touch. “And the entire night, Stassi was following Ariana around and saying in her ear, ‘You’re just in denial that you’re not in love with me. You know you want to be my friend.’”

Tom said that Ariana got extremely uncomfortable but she tried to laugh it off, and she realized that Stassi’s friend Kristen Doute was trying to take pictures of them together— which seemed like it was planned.

He pointed out that the night that the episode aired — where Ariana made it clear that she wants nothing to do with her — Stassi posted one of the photos Kristen took in Las Vegas, which was a very unflattering shot of Ariana.

“This is Ariana waiting for my reaction... right after she told me she secretly loves me,” Stassi wrote in the caption on Instagram.

“Saw that coming! Not a big deal, just weird, and seems back handed,” Tom told In Touch. “The awkward look on Ariana’s face says it all. It was something Alicia Silverstone’s character in Clueless would do to a guy who turns her down.”

Scroll through the gallery below to see the cast of Vanderpump Rules then and now!

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Stassi Schroeder

Stassi was the queen bee when the show first began, though has semi-chilled out since rekindling her friendship with Katie Maloney. She put her SURver days behind her and currently hosts a podcast called Straight Up With Stassi.

The blonde beauty was also romantically involved with her costar Jax Taylor at the start of the series.